Competition Commences | FEATURE

The Devils kick off their preseason slate of games Monday night in Montreal, a start of four games in five nights. And a lot of jobs are up for grabs during this year's training camp.
General manager Tom Fitzgerald and his staff had a busy off-season, adding depth and competition to the organization with forwards Ondrej Palat and Erik Haula, defensemen Brendan Smith and John Marino and goaltender Vitek Vanecek.
With an influx of new talent, the battle for roster spots has intensified.
"Creating depth, creating competition. You talk about a meritocracy, that's really what we want to create," Fitzgerald said. "We want guys to earn it."
The team wrapped up its slate of scrimmages on Sunday and now the competition will really heat up with the preseason contests. Here is a look at some of those position battles.

Goaltender
There's no mystery that much of the Devils' hoped success this season will rest on the shoulders on the man (or men) in the crease. A rash of injuries last season forced the Devils to ride their No. 4 man on the depth chart (a 21-year-old rookie in Nico Daws). And it was the biggest blow to the team's on-ice success, with all due respect to the tremendous job Daws did in tough circumstances.
All eyes will be on Mackenzie Blackwood during training camp. The 25-year-old is entering his fifth NHL season. Blackwood, 6-foot-4, 225-pound, has all the assets and talents to be a legitimate franchise goaltender. It's just a matter of putting it all together.
"We believe there is a high upside with Mackenzie Blackwood," Fitzgerald said. "He's going to get the opportunity to get back on the horse and show us who he really is as a goaltender."
Blackwood won 22 games in 2019-20 and showed why the Devils drafted him in the second round (42nd overall) of the 2015 NHL Draft. He followed that up with a tremendous start to the 2020-21 campaign, but his season was derailed by a contraction of COVID-19. He admitted that he experienced lingering breathing issues and couldn't quite regain his early-season stature.
Blackwood underwent surgery on his heel in the summer of 2021, but it hadn't fully healed by the start of the season. He fought through the pain and discomfort but was limited to only 25 games played all year. Now, he hopes all of that is behind him, and he can focus on reaching his potential after a full summer to recover.
"I feel physically good," he said. "Now for me it's just cleaning up the details, fine tuning stuff, getting into game speed. Physically, I'm capable of doing everything. Now it's dialing in the small details and getting my game crisp."
Blackwood won't be handed the crease by the Devils. The team traded for Vitek Vanecek in the off-season to compete for playing time, as well as add depth at the position in case of injury.
The former Capitals netminder has won 20-plus games in each of his two seasons in the NHL. The 6-foot-2, 184-pound Czech had split the net in Washington with Ilya Samsonov during those two years. He's familiar with a 1a-1b goalie duo, but Vanecek isn't going to be satisfied with just a split role.
Defense
The Devils' defensive unit is practically set, at least as far as the top-six is concerned. Dougie Hamilton, Jonas Siegenthaler, Damon Severson and Ryan Graves return to claim their usual positions. But the club has two changes on the bottom pair with Smith and Marino.
Smith, 33, will provide a veteran presence. The 6-foot-2, 200-pound blueliner will add a physical and intimidating presence that was lacking on the blue line last year for the Devils. He's also been a part of winning teams in Detroit, New York Rangers and Carolina, accumulating 56 Stanley Cup playoff games.
"On ice, just being a steady, physical nature and responsible defensively," he said of his attributes. "I just want to be a vocal leader. Be a guy that can help this team move in the right direction. Whether it's a pick-me up speech or being there for another guy."
Marino is still relatively young at 25 years old. But the right-hand shot blueliner played three full seasons with the Pittsburgh Penguins, which includes playoff appearances every year. He comes from a championship culture.
"They've made the playoffs 16 years in a row for a reason," Marino said of the Penguins. "Being able to learn from that and take that experience, and hopefully use it here, that'll go a long way."
With the top-six in place, that leaves likely one opening on the roster. And there are quite a few players vying for that seventh D-man position. The two most prominent names are Kevin Bahl and Nikita Okhotiuk.
Bahl, a key piece in the Taylor Hall trade, brings incredible size to the lineup at 6-foot-6, 230 pounds. He has played 24 NHL games for the Devils over the past two seasons, including 17 last year. Bahl, 22, has improved his skating, decision-making and angles over the course of his time in the American Hockey League.
"I just want to show off my physicality, mobility and puck moving ability," Bahl said. "A shutdown game, bring what I can and compete for a spot."
Okhotiuk, 21, would bring a tenacious and nasty edge to the lineup. The 6-foot-1, 195-pound Russian plays a mean and physical game that sometimes crosses the line. He will throw a hit every chance he gets and will drop the gloves if the occasion calls for it.
"I want to play as simple as I can," Okhotiuk said. "Play physical, good first pass and join the rush. Defend my goalie.
"(Physicality) is my strength that I can use in games. We have a couple preseason games against other teams and I want to show my best."
But other players that could make a case are Riley Walsh, an offensively talented righthanded blueliner, and Thomas Hickey, a veteran with over 450-career NHL games played. Walsh, 23, made his NHL debut last season, appearing in one game. While Hickey, who is in camp on a player tryout contract (PTO), played the majority of last season in the AHL.
The one wild card may be No. 2-overall pick at the 2022 NHL Draft Simon Nemec. Though it's more likely the Slovakian ends up, at least starting, in the AHL, you can never count out talented players from pushing for a spot. See: Dawson Mercer.
Forwards
The forward grouping may be the hardest of all to predict. There is a logjam of talent and only so many positions to fill. Nico Hischier, Jack Hughes, Jesper Bratt, Ondrej Palat, Miles Wood, Yegor Sharangovich, Erik Haula and Mercer would appear to be locks.
That leaves four openings for players like Tomas Tatar, Michael McLeod, Nathan Bastian, Alexander Holtz, Andreas Johnsson, Jesper Boqvist, Tyce Thompson and Fabian Zetterlund (to name a few).
If the math is correct, that's eight players fighting for four playing spots (of course, the Devils will probably carry 13 forwards meaning its eight players fighting for five openings). But that doesn't even take players like Graeme Clark, Nolan Foote or Chase Stillman into account.
"You look at Nico and Jack as your top-two centermen that are going to play around 20 minutes a game," head coach Lindy Ruff said. "Then you decide what do you need for eight, nine, 10 minutes. Do you need a penalty killer? Do you need a guy to win faceoffs? Are you playing a physical team that you want to counter that physically. That makeup comes down to what your lineup offers."
Perhaps, this is where waiver options come into consideration. Players like Zetterlund and Boqvist would have to clear waivers (and could possibly get claimed by another team) in order to be assigned to Utica. Players like Thompson and Holtz can still be sent back-and-forth without clearing waivers.
That said, Mercer could have been sent to the AHL without having to clear waivers, but he earned himself a spot in the lineup (for all 82 games) last season. It will still all come down to the performance on the ice.
And that competition revs up Monday night in Quebec.